DANCING BULL

The Swiss were all-on today, throwing the AC40 around harder and sharper than we have seen from any other team so far. The big focus was the pre-start and the team set out early from the Port Vell to catch a beautiful 10-12 knots whilst the Chase Boat team dropped in a start gate. Once in the area, the sailors were on it hard, dialling into the imaginary start-box from a windward entry and then going through their circle manoeuvres with two boards down to control the time-on-distance calls, swooping, luffing and stalling on the lead back into the line. This was a highly impressive performance time and time again by Arnaud Psarofaghis and Maxime Bachelin on helm who looked totally in sync in terms of communication, whilst the co-ordination with trimmers Yves Detrey and Nicolas Rolaz was almost faultless.

Communication between the helms is so key with the view to leeward being completely blocked by the double skin mainsail and on one dynamic lead into the leeward pin saw the AC40 catch the rope of the marker buoy after some sharp steering, stalls and luffs in the final seconds of a start. What was impressive though was the instant recognition and recovery, Arnaud Psarofaghis immediately rocked the boat right over to windward in a remarkable show of foiling seamanship, made sure that any tangle was immediately cleared, sheeted back on and set off upwind. Brilliant recovery.

All afternoon, Alinghi Red Bull Racing looked sharp. Tacks were some of the best we’ve seen anywhere in this America’s Cup cycle. Trim was mid-flight to low and pitch was bow down with windward heel. At the top of the short courses, the bear-aways were epic – flat, fast and powerful – and this is an area that the team have spent a lot of time both in the simulator and on the water perfecting. On the evidence presented today, it’s been time well-spent. Downwind the AC40 looked measured, flat and fast with far more even flight through the gybes, perhaps due to the slight sea state and relaxed swell limiting the requirement for higher flight.

All credit to the sailors who have responded to coaching superbly but the guidance that Sailing Team Advisors Pietro Sibello and Dean Barker have imparted to this young, keen team has been invaluable. In interview afterwards Pietro gave a brilliant insight into how they’ve approached this block of pre-start training saying: “Our focus this week is to use the AC40 to practise the pre starts and the laps around marks, mark roundings and manoeuvres as well. In the pre-start the boats are really fast and the time of the pre-start is two minutes in the box - the box where you can sail  is not really big, so you need to practise on how to use, in the best way, the time you have after the entry and of course there are different schemes you can use and to slow down there are different techniques you have seen, for sure us sailing with two boards down that's a technique to slow down the boat and being a bit more precise on where to position the boat and then kill the time… when the wind is super light, like today at the end of the session, you don't want to slow down too much because then you cannot manoeuvre. So it's a bit more critical to use this technique but when the wind is a bit higher and the boat speed is higher as well then you need somehow to slow down the boat and bringing the second board down (increase) the drag and reduce the righting moment so the speed goes down and it’s easier to go around the box.”

Alinghi Red Bull Racing threw in some 61 manoeuvres today over 30 nautical miles of short course, rapid fire sailing and understandably broke a batten high up on the mainsail. This was quickly replaced, and we’ll chalk that to ‘wear and tear’ as this is a team totally committed to a relentless, high intensity sailing programme. Whilst other teams are playing the data gathering game, Alinghi Red Bull Racing is putting time in on the water. It’s impressive, it’s working and they just get better and better. This is a team, for sure, to watch in the America’s Cup.

The Bull was dancing today.

On-Water Recon Unit Notes: Alinghi Red Bull Racing rolled out their AC40 at 08:45, anticipating the better breeze earlier in the day, which was forecast to drop later in the afternoon. The team hoisted the M1 mainsail and J3 jib in the port and towed the yacht out, releasing the towline at the port entrance. The wind at the start of the sailing day was 11 knots, gusting 13 knots, and relatively flat sea.

Sailing commenced at 11:25, with a few gybes downwind to the course to warm up. As Pietro Sibello explained in the interview, start practice is the focus of the week. The team spent the day drilling time and distance runs to the start line, continuing up to a windward mark every second/third start. While the wind was strong enough, the sailors practiced sailing with both boards down, which helps with stability and manoeuvring in a tight box. As the wind strength decreased, they trained balancing speed and lift by alternating between one and two boards in the water. By 14:00, the sailing area grew patchier, with holes in the wind measured at 3 knots.

A short break of 30 minutes was spent dropping the main to replace a broken batten. The AC40 caught the pin end anchor line on one occasion, though fortunately this was not a major issue. It was not possible to see any damage to the leading edge of the foil when the yacht was craned out as the yacht was stern to the recon viewing point.

Today the recon vessel was back to a fully operational standard, after the block of the Mercury Verado 250 was replaced. This was caused by water entering through the exhaust, an issue seen before on the same engine model, as explained by the shore crew.

The team covered over 30 Nautical miles in four hours on the water, performing 61 manoeuvres.

Onboard Today

Driving Group: Arnaud Psarofaghis / Maxime Bachelin / Nicolas Charbonnier

Flight Control: Yves Detrey / Lucien Cujean / Nicolas Rolaz / Bryan Mettraux

Additional: Starting Crew; Starboard: Arnaud Psarofaghis + Yves Detrey in starboard pods. Nicolas Charbonnier + Nicolas Rolaz in port pods. Pietro Sibello on Chase Boat

Conditions: 11-13kn S @ 11:35 , 10-12kn S @12:40 , 6-8kn SSW @ 13:35 , 5-7kn SSW @ 13:55AM: 13°c, Mostly Cloudy. Weather PM: 16°c, Intermittent Clouds. Sea State: Beaufort 2

Sails Used:

Mainsail M1 (M1-1): 3 hours 30 minutes

J1 (J1-1): 1 hour 20 minutes

J2 (J2-1): 1 hour 30 minutes

Total Tacks: 32 – 25 foil-to-foil, 4 touch & go, 3 touchdowns.

Total Gybes: 29 – 23 foil-to-foil, 5 touch & go, 1 touchdown.

Recon Notes:

11:25 – 12:30 Sailing (18 Tacks - Fully Foiling, 1 Tack - Touch & Go, 1 Tack – Touch Down, 14 Gybes - Fully Foiling, 2 Gybes - Touch & Go)

12:45 – 12:50 Sailing (1 Gybe – Fully Foiling) – stopped to replace broken batten.

13:30 – 14:35 Sailing (7 Tacks - Fully Foiling, 3 Tacks - Touch & Go, 2 Tacks – Touch Down, 8 Gybes - Fully Foiling, 3 Gybes - Touch & Go, 1 Gybe - Touch Down)

Dock-Out: 1100 Dock-In: 1505